John Donne
penned a famous "romantic" poem called simply "The Flea"
The flea has appeared in many songs and poems over the years. This could be due to their ability to break the class boundaries and affect Kings and Paupers alike. Fleas were a popular choice to symbolise carnal pleasures in the Renaissance due to reproduction being thought of being an act of "mingling blood".
The flea in music is often represented with fast or staccato music and there is a strong association with the ukulele which is known as the "jumping flea". Here are a few examples:
Historically flea poems have been deeply symbolic, however more recent examples have been more light hearted.
John Donne
penned a famous "romantic" poem called simply "The Flea"
I hope that I shall never see
A poem as ugly as a flea.
A flea whose hungry mouth is pressed
Against my dog's large beastly chest;
A flea who sucks up blood all day,
and jumps onto an itchy stray;
A flea that may in summer bear
a nest of offspring in my pet's hair:
Beneath its legs a scab is lain
My poor dog cannot complain.
AdvantageT is sold by folks like me,
Why oh why did God make the flea?
An odd little thing is a flea
you can't tell a he from a she
but he can and she can
Whoopee
Big fleas have little fleas,
Apon their backs to bite 'em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas,
and so, ad infinitum.
Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so _ad infinitum.
And the great fleas themselves, in turn, have greater fleas to go on;
While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on
So, naturalists observe, a flea - Hath smaller fleas that on him prey;
And these have smaller still to bite 'em; And so proceed ad infinitum